BEFORE WE BEGIN
[[The Campaign|BACK TO CAMPAIGN]] '''Before We Begin - An introduction to Kalamir''' '''PREFACE''' '''''"You are about to participate in a make-believe fictional world of high fantasy. But this world, just as any other floating in the infinite void of space, is but a lost, twinkling, point of light forever to be forgotten unless inhabited by intelligent minds willing to share it's beauty."''''' '''''"With that being said, this beauty that I speak of is not, and can never be, a permanent thing FOR ANYONE, unless there are those out there willing to risk their chance of missing it's magnificence in order to keep it alive. This beauty that is the living breathing world can only continue as such, if you are willing to fight and sacrafice yourself for it's perpetuation. If not. Than please put away your swords, staffs, armor, and fancy 'boots of striding' and return to the humdrummery of your normal lives... Of course... That too is under the same threatening blade of tyranny, evil, and injustice... hmmmm... It seems Kalamir is calling...."''''' '''In the Beginning...''' '''''"The universe had exploded into life like a screaming newborn human baby. An infinite, hot, dense cloud of particles soon to form into the matter that we have come to love so dearly today. In a distant, empty corner of this chaotic ballet something different was happening however. A swirling cloud of dense energy began to take form. Unlike the helium, hydrogen, and carbon being formed so painfully slow everywhere else, this cloud of particles seemed to almost have a life of it's own, carefully and methodically forming itself with wisping tendrils of crackling life.''''' ''''' The cloud then began to imlode on itself, taking the shape of a rippling, rotating sphere with two very obvious polarized elements. On top, a misty white vapor-like pool of brilliant light. Below it, a yawning dark crimson shroud that seemed to almost be repelled by the light above...''''' '''''And at that very second... They came to be... A loving, riteous, omnipotence atop, and a brooding, oozing malignance on the bottom, a sphere of oppisite forces forever grappling eachother for control of whatever it could be birthing in it's innards... Like dueling swordsman, these titanic energies are giving birth to everyone and everything that is and will ever be, and like an unending game of chess, they will forever battle for it's control....''''' '''''And this my friends... Is how Kalamir was born.''''' '''Saroheim the Light of the Lifebringer...''' '''''The cosmic duel, neverending, began to take a more sophisticated form over the next 100,000 millenia. The Energies began to form a sentient being at their core. Atop, the light were the first star was born began to call itself Saroheim. Below, where the first star collapsed began to call itself Nergoth.''''' '''''For millions of years they fought, an unstoppable force pushing an immovable object. As their forms became more tangible, and their waring more fierce, it created a reaction within their sphere of influence. Suddenly another sphere formed... this one made of burning crackling orange energy, blue, dripping matter, fierce kinetics, annnnnnndddd of course.... solid, tangible matter. it seems they had created a sphere of the elements, the very basic forms of energy necassary to create life.''''' '''''Soon they began to battle over the newly formed energies and this in fact created another buffer which pushed them even farther apart. This rsphere however was made of shadows, and pure antimatter, then again, and again, they fought until they no longer could reach nor acknowledge eachothers existance through the cacophany of energies constantly swelling and growing momentum...''''' '''''They soon grew alone and began harnessing these energies to create, not only physical forms for themselves, but kingdoms in which to live. Saroheim created the Golden Empyrean, Nergoth the 9 spheres of Abbadon. Alone they looked over their domains, yearning for something better.''''' '''''Then, Saroheim noticed that the solid matter could be sculpted and then animated using a bit of the energies that he had just made himself with. This was the birth of the GODKIN... A choir of demi-god's creatively crafted to embody the very basic natures they were sculpted from...''''' '''''Saroheim's first sentient creation was a perfect, mirrored image of his own form, without the super pwers, known as the Aasimar. This Godkin was named Asodeil. Together they experimented, molding a gorgeous, pointy eared, being of pure earth known as Gylil the first elf. And so, as it goes, they continued until they had eight perfect beings.''''' '''''One of the Godkin, named Yasa, was very curious, and began experimenting with the spheres of energy swirling below them... thats when he discovered it... a sphere of energy that wasn't energy at all but a fully formed universe of matter. It seems, the dueling Gods had infact outgrown their birthplace and in fact, enveloped it in its entirety at some point... hmmmm.''''' '''''Yasa, finding the brightest most beautiful star, yearned to experience the newly discovered universe. In fact, the star had a single planet orbiting made of the very elements and energies that flowed like rivers below them...''''' '''''And so the story goes, Saroheim gave the green light and sent the Godkin to this small, trivial, vague little rock to explore. What they found was that they couldn't return to the Golden Empyrean unless they sacrificed their godly powers and their physical forms. Not wanting to give up a good thing quite yet, they began to play with this little rock and soon they began raising mountains, conjuring forests, filling oceans, and breathing life into a murky stew that would soon form critters to enjoy the fruits of their labor...''''' '''''After so much work, the godkin were drained. To the point of dessication and sickness. They discovered that they were slowly becoming mortal as they used up what divine energy their father Saroheim had breathed into them...''''' '''''They hoped and prayed, wanting to enjoy the fruit of their efforts... and thats when they realized that Saroheim could channel divine and arcane energy to them when their faith or spirit were true. They acted like lightining rods.''''' '''''Yasa, now intrigued, figured out that now they all were still strong enough, as long as they preyed and kept in contact with the higher realm, to breathe life into creations of their own... And so the Godkin began molding, sculpting, and painstakingly detaling creatures of higher intelligence in their images. They each birthed 2, a male and female, to keep them company and to reproduce... And then, for the next 3,000 years, a perfect utopia would blossom and flourish on the surface of this tiny, singular rock, orbiting this perfect, radiant globe of light...''''' '''Arakniat the First Suffering...''' '''Gylil, the god of elves, gave birth to 2 siblings Arakniat, and Gylad'''. Arakniat was named after the strange dream Gylil had before giving her life where he was eaten by a swarm of the very spiders he created. You see, evil simply didnt exist. The world was made and created in the perfect image, of a perfect being. One with no feelings other than PURE UNMITIGATED LOVE. On the other side of the now INFINITELY EXPANDING UNIVERSE Nergoth was not to be heard. He hadn't figured out how to penetrate into the Material Plane, Nor how to create life, nor would he care to. He would only want to destroy it. So, back on topic, Arakniat was born with the most fleeting beauty of any of the Godkin's siblings other than the Assamir's but you can't compete with a being created in the image of god. She was absolutely perfect and wonderful. Her and her kin Gylad soon began creating more elves. Each generation a little less special then the next. Then, after around 500 more years of this, Arakniat began to feel depressed and angry. Feelings that weret known nor even noticed by those that don't know the meaning of unhappy. The Gnome tribes, Halflings, Assimars, Kai'tju, Dwarves, Merfolk, Nagaji, and Svirfneblin folk all seemed wonderfully content and sickeningly sweet. She began to grow spiteful. Then, one summer day, she left the Ancropolis to visit her elven kin in their great forest empire but when she got there she wasn't very friendly. After years of angry inults and sarcasm, folk began to outcast Arakniat. She then realized that her fellow Godkin had told them to. Angered beyond words, she fell from the Ancropolis unto a flourishing human farming thorp and demanded they sacrafice their youngest child or Saroheim will strike them down with great vengence. They soon fel for her trick, begging for mercy, which she didnt show. Angry at her father's choice to be mortal, angry at her backstabbing kin, she took the babies life right then and there.... What followed was an explosion of interplanar destruction... The scales tipped suddenly and Nergoth could feel it... Blood poured from the sky, babies and their mothers burst into flames, devout men and women of Saroheim exploded in a cloud of gore and viscera as an influx of negative energy burst through the planes and into the material world. Saroheim's energy dimmed dangerousily low as entire forests crumbled into ash and the very fabric of divinity began to flow towards evil.... For her crime, Gylil and Gylad decided to lock Arakniat away under the Runedeep mountains because of the Dwarves mass migrations to the surface world had freed up entire cities worth of sprawling caversna and caves. So they magically locked her under the mountains and for another 4,000 years would forget all about her... '''THE SCOURGE...''' On a crisp autumn morning in the orchards of Agalli Farm, a young Elgotha Stormfaith commented to her elderly half elven father about the old tale of Arakniat. She told him that she felt terrible for him and wanted to see her free like the birds, bees, and elven boys and girls... Seconds later time stopped. The Very core of the planet of Kalamir began to shake and rumble. A low frequency, concussive, roar, growing stronger every passing millisecond... "ELGOTHA!" Her father screamed... but she didn't hear him... his voice was drowned out by the sound of the landscape, a beatiful snowcapped mountain range that had always been a reminder of the world's beauty, exploding into a fiery black pillar of magma spewing death... Even though the mountains were quite some ways away, maybe 20 miles, the explosion still knocked her onto her bottom. Everywhere else the folk who had felt the quake ignored the thundering booms. until... they came... From a 150 mile wide chasm split into the very crust of the earth an onslaught of darkness poured forth. A blanket of vermin, demons, infernal beasts, and monstrosities began to devour the world in their path. Above them, massive gem eyed lizards with leathery bat wings breathed fire, acids, and even clouds of poison., on the ground, hordes of disfigured, vile, green skinned beasts with pointed tusks raped and pillaged everything in sight, then... after the death shroud's march finally subsided, she came. But it wasn't her... She was different. Her skin was jet black, her hair and eyes stark white, but that wasnt the disturbing part, her lower torso was the legs and abdomen of a slick, giant, black widow spider. Standing next to her, in shining red armor, a 28' tall fire skinned, horned beast adorned in bones and gore... Nergoth's kin... BAPHYRM. For the next 320 years the Races of Saroheim would be forced to live as refugees. All of them. As the war progressed millions lost their lives, entire cities, including the Ancropolis and it's sworn protectors... Asodeil and Yasa. The Assamir were all but wiped out, along with the gnomes and halflings. However, under the command of Elgotha, a fiery Elven warrior, a great army was raised and FINALLY the tables began to turn. '''The Era of Barbarians, Fallen Empires and the Modern Era of Mankind''' By the Godswar's end the generations of folk that had grown up in it's wake were lost and tired. Slowly they tried to rebuild their lives but the constant threat of raids from the monsters in the shadows, and even from their fellow men, became too much. Soon all social morality broke down into pure barbarism. In the Mountains the Dwarves began to reclaim theyre mountain homes to find both twisted versions of Elves and Dwarves already there. Deurgar, Drow, Svirfneblin... all tainted by evil could no longer go into the sun, the pure light of Saroheim... This 150 year period is mostly well known for the creation of Elgotha's Moon, a massive rocky celestial body that suddenly appeared after her untimely death that orbits the planet just right allowing Saroheim's shine to hit the planet even in darkness. It is also known for the rising of the most infamous Necromancer of all time. Long dead since the godswar, Magross the Defiler's devout cultists performed a ritual to turn him into a lich. Soon, he began marching on Ro'Skyrga, the largest city in the world, with 3 billion animated corpses on his coat tails. Luckily, after so many generations growing up with the terror of war and undeath, the common folk were no longer afraid and soon a band of elite adventurers took up the call for all that is good. These folk called themselves the Pyke and Pire a group led by [http://kalamir.wikia.com/wiki/Npcs Baylor Stormcaster], includes the still living [http://kalamir.wikia.com/wiki/Npcs Amon Valoff], Nyra Jadeheart, Grandelmar Bunderbluss, plus 3 now dead: Arron Skylance, Phi'Tjakut, and Doompike They defeated Magross and dispelled his cursed form... The next 10 years would see the dawn of what is known as the Era of (Falling) Empires, a 55 year gold rush to see who could incorporate the largest kingdom and army and control the most land without having to be polite and work out a system of checks and balances. I would say, the barbarism of this short era was much worse... A bloodless coup gives birth to the empire of Dagrmourn, the Skyrpathian legacy begins to sink, and a Dwarven civil war over mining properties ends up decimating the world's economy. Soon, Kalamir, which was once made up of 100's of city-states and free collectives soon began to crumble and fall under the iron curtain of Imperialism and Vassalage. Then, a bold move and snarky comment from Dagrmourn's First Emperor, Sarosun, about his nation no longer deciding to pay for overpriced elven steel and in fact backing the Dwarven houses that want to open the mines on Elven lands. This kicked off a 25 year conflict that woud destroy both the Dwarven and Elven Empires, hyper-inflate Dagrmourn's morale, but in fact cause the starvation, suffering and eventual death of 68,000 folk. Everyday people prey for maricles, but with the constant misery and strife the fluxuations of power between the negative and positive planes is too much. It weakens both Saro and Nerg to be in yet again a constant struggle for the sphere... Once this terrible era died, an amazing revelation was found by a Gnomish Tinkerer. A way to directly manipulate Divine and Arcane energy... With this discovery... The Modern Era WAS BORN... '''E3.01.01 The Era of Mankind''' After the fall of the great empires, humans began to breed like rabbits. Many avoiding the deadly arts of war and politics all together and ramaining in small tribal thorps deep in the forests. Soon, the tribes began to notice that they had no more room to hunt or farm without joinging together... soon... intertribal breeding led to explosions in both cultural advancement and genetic fine tuning. This Era was brought in with arrival of the Red Moon of Arakniat. A second celestial object, much lower on the horizon, pocked with severe cratering which has made it lopsided and gives it a strange orbit. On the last day of every 3 Cycle Season either the Moon of Elgotha ecipses The Red moon or the other way around. When the redmoon is visible, folk become frightened worried that their crops and livelyhood are cursed. A festival is held on the days when the bright silver of Elgotha's moon shines over the crimson orb. After 110 years, technology is now at it's highest point since the gods roamed the planet, the darkness and hell of war and monster invasion has seemingly dissapeared into the shadows, and finally, BLOODY FINALLY, YOU GET TO GO TO [[Pyke Academy|PYKE ACADEMY]]!!!! '''From "Bored Mopping Floors" to "Scores of Magic Swords!"''' *'''Here PC's Should sort of explain their BACKSTORY and GOALS as I explain the meaning of attending Pyke Academy...''' '''PYKE: Home of the Howling Owlbears! GO BEARS!''' *"So for whatever reason youve both been picked to attend Pyke, ON A STRICT PROBATIONARY ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP, now I know what youre saying... "So what?" Well... Pyke academy is the most prestigous training college in the free world. Men and Women that graduate from Pyke go on to be High Nobles, Generals, Magus, Scepters to Jarls, Counts... you name it.... if that sounds boring... a smaller, but just as well respected minority of students go on to do freelance or guild adventuring for clients from around the world. *You see. What Pyke gives you, isnt just a chisel and a hammer. It's not even an explanation on how to use said tools. What pyke does, is make sure you know how to kill every cunt in the room with the hammer and chisel, escape with the half ton of expensive marble, and use it to pursuade your way into the imperial ministry...." '''These words are coming from the mouth of a very intimidating, prepondirate, dominate man of at least 7 foot 3 inches. His jaw is extremely thick, with an almost animal underbite. You begin to notice his grey skin tone and black eyes and realize he's half-orc. He's dressed in miltary leather armor with a chainlink Byrnie underneath both with short sleeves revealing his tree trunk sized biceps which only helps intimidate you further.''' *'''"My name is Slodah Kosov''' I have been the Captain of the Guard and Castellan here at Pyke for 15 years and I will say I have never seen Edwynd so excited over 3 new students in my entire time here... Have you met your soon to be mates yet?" '''At this point, INTRODUCE [[Our Intrepid Heros|DREXEL GRIVES]]'''... *Ok, looks like were about done here. I just need to warn you. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED, by any circumstance other than dragon's fire or invasion to leave the campus and walk the streets of Oldavia. This place is safe, however, out there, something terrible is brewing and it's been spilling over into the Academie's ward almost every night... **"The High Lords of Arcavia are a twisted lot. They prefer to watch a man starve than deal with the Skyrpathians or god forbid the Imperium. Starvation is a massive issue right now. The Harbormaster is the Duke's brother in law and has shut down the wharfs on his order. Nothing has gone in or out in the last 2 weeks. I thought the point of being royalty and running a kingdom was to keep being royalty and to keep running the kingdom... Cunts" **You will be here for 2 years then after that you can apply to study with one of the hundreds of guilds that we work with, or even become an intern in an actual Adventurer's Guild... I seen a younger boy, studying to be an alchemist, got hired by the Banehoods... He got offed bout a week into it... but still musta been fun to see an actual Ettin up close ey..." **You will report to the Temple, to Chaplin Crowse where you'll get 'bathed in the light'... sorry its maditory... gotta make sure ya aint a doppleganger or a weretiger... then you'll go to the Blueframed Quarters, theres 8 quarters, each one's door is painted a different color, yers is blue. From there, I dunno, it's been a while. But i do know, sometime this month, we'll be sparrin. See ya soon. Edwynd and Drexel should return shortly. So youre here. Howd you get here, rubbing elbows with the children of over 30 high houses, 5 Imperial Imperators, and even the deformed son of a once cursed Sorcerer. This is a HUGE oppurtunity to hone your crafts and skills into weapons of riteous wraith. This'll be a long 2 years, so be ready FOR ANYTHING... The City of Oldavia, Arcavia Nestled on the Northern Coast just shy of the Moorlands and the Moonglow Plains, Oldavia was once a great bustling metropolis full of culture and life, commerce and prosperity. Then the Throne of Arcavia was taken by King Sunderfire and he systimatically re appointed every noble position in the Confederated Monarchy. This has caused strife both politically and socially as Sunderfire's military born and uncaring Dukes seem to be purposely trying to ncite riots. In Oldavia, his son in law, Duke Farom, has been holed up in the "Coppertowers" for more than a month, afraid to confront the angry peasents below. In fact, when Sunderfire sent his youngest son, Lord Kyl, the boy's entire entourage was ambushed and slaughtered in the streets by militant brigands. Rumors around town speak of revolution... *Welcome to your first taste of 'Royal Politics' A soft man's voice pipes up from beyond the door in the hall sweet and calming in such a stressfull situation. You turn to see who said it to see Drexel standing behind a handsome Kai'Tju man leaning on a tall staff in a very child-like playful way, his tail slowly wagging back and forth... *The Monarchy here in Arcavia leaves us alone. That's why we are still here. Hello, I am the Lord Commander of Pyke Academy Lord Edwynd Niatjuka!... It's a pleasure to finaly meet all of you... Ive heard SO MUCH!... They told me you were adorable too... they were not mistaken... and you Lord Valewalker, you look ready to conquer the planet itself... Heee hee... were gonna have soooo much FUN!... Please, please. Let me show you to your quarters and we can get started.... And with that, you began your 2 year journey of rigorous, indeed brutal, scholarly study of the Martial, Arcane, and Divine arts of death dealing...... * '''TIME TO ROLL UP THEM CHARACTERS'''!